Wilbur was born in Millville,
Indiana, in 1867 and his brother, Orville Wright, was born in Dayton,
Ohio, in 1871. Their father was a United Brethren Church bishop.
When Orville was seven and Wilbur was eleven, their father gave
them a model
monoplane that had been designed by Alphonse
Pénaud.
They were fascinated by the toy and told themselves that one day
they would make an aeroplane that would fly.
In 1888 Orville started
a printing business. Wilbur joined him and together they designed
and built a new printing press. Four years later the brothers sold
their printing business and opened a bicycle shop to sell and repair
bicycles in Dayton, Ohio. The shop was a great success as both brothers
were talented engineers.
In August, 1896, the
brothers read about the death of Otto Lilienthal in a flying accident.
Lilienthal, a German engineer, had for many years been building
flying machines. Wilbur Wright later wrote: "The brief notice
which appeared in the telegraphic news at the time aroused a passive
interest which had existed from my childhood." Soon afterwards
the Wright brothers acquired a copy of Lilienthal's Bird
Flight as a Basis for Aviation.
They also read Etienne-Jules
Marey's book, The Flight of Birds.
Orville Wright commented: "Learning the secret of flight from
a bird was a good deal like learning the secret of magic from a
magician". According
to Wilbur "we soon passed from the reading to the thinking
stage, and finally to the working stage."
Percy Pilcher, another
figure trying to develop a flying machine was killed on a glider
flight in October 1899. This convinced the Wright brothers to concentrate
on building kites controlled from the ground. These kites had controls
for warping the wings to achieve control of direction and stability.
By 1901 the Wrights had
developed a successful glider and broke the world record by reaching
389 feet (118 m). Not satisfied with this the following year one
of their gliders went even higher and achieved 600 feet (183 m).
They now decided to build an aeroplane. To help them in this they
moved to Kitty Hawk, an isolated fishing village in North Carolina.
At Kitty Hawk they had miles of empty sand dunes to carry out their
experiments. The brothers also built a small wind tunnel so they
could test various wing designs and cambers.
The Wrights also decided
to develop their own engine and propeller. With the help of their
wind tunnel, they were able to carry out research that enabled them
to develop a propeller that converted 66 per cent of the engine's
power into forward thrust. Their experiments revealed that the propeller
tilted the aircraft in the direction opposite to the way it turned.
Therefore the Wrights used two propellers, turning in opposite directions.
Samuel
Pierpont Langley of
the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory was also busy developing
a flying machine. Powered by a gasoline engine, the Aerodrome
attempted to make its first flight on 7th October, 1903. The Aerodrome
crashed soon after leaving the launch pad on the Potomac River.
The front wing was badly damaged but this was repaired and a second
attempt was made on 9th December. This time the rear wing and tail
completely collapsed during the launch.
Wilbur and Orville Wright
watched these developments with interest. They did not allow Samuel
Pierpont Langley's failure
to damper their own enthusiasm to create a flying machine. On 17th
December, 1903, the brothers were ready to test out the areoplane
they called Flyer I. Orville
took the controls and the flight only lasted 12 seconds. However,
the aircraft travelled 118 feet (36 m), 10 feet (3 m) above the
sand. The brothers made a couple more flights and a few hours after
Orville's first flight, Wilbur managed to clear 852 feet (260 m)
in 59 seconds. After he landed a gust of wind caught the Flyer
I and blew it over, damaging it so badly that it never
flew again.
Orville Wright, watched
by Wilbur Wright, pilots
the Flyer in its first flight on 17th December, 1903
There might have been
doubts about the truth of these test runs. However, as well as aviators,
the Wright brothers were also interested in photography and had
arranged for these flights to be captured on camera. Despite this
evidence other aviators, especially in France, refused to believe
that the Wright brothers had made the first ever powered flight.
The Wright brothers now
began negotiations with various governments around the world. Two
years later they sold their designs for the Flyer
I for $30,000 (about $600,000 in today's money). The
Wright brothers now returned to manufacturing areoplanes. In October,
1905, the Flyer III stayed in
the air for 38 minutes.
In 1908 the brothers
produced the Wright Model A.
This was a two-seater with an improved control system. It had a
much more powerful engine and could reach a speed of 44 mph (71
kpm). However, on 17th September, the brothers had their first plane
crash. Orville Wright was seriously injured and his passenger, Thomas
Selfridge, was killed.
Wilbur took the machine
to France and at a demonstration at the military field at Camp d'Auvours,
set an endurance record of 2 hours 20 minutes 23 seconds. It also
set an altitude record of 362 feet (110 m). As a result of the tests
the brothers were able to sell construction licences for the Wright
Model A to Britain, France and Germany.
After the death of Wilbur
from typhoid fever in 1912, Orville lost interest in aviation and
sold the Wright Company in 1915.
Orville Wright died in
1948.
